The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally, presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it may be described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present technology.
Surface cleaning and preparation processes are important considerations of a vehicular assembly processes. In order to attain an effective and aesthetically pleasing finished vehicle surface that also protects against rust and corrosion, an underlying substrate should be effectively free of foreign material including, but not limited to, foreign dust particles, dirt particles, lint, oils and the like during various phases of surface treatment and coating processes. To achieve a suitable, durable substrate surface to which various paints and finishes can adhere, great care is taken such that paint booths and spray-coating booths are clean and dust free. However, if the substrate entering the paint booth is not clean or dust free, there remains a high risk of contamination during the surface treatment or coating process. In certain instances a vehicle assembly, sometimes referred to as a body-in-white, includes various sheet metal components of the vehicle that have been welded together, but most other moving parts have not yet been added. The body-in-white can be subjected to various operations and processes associated with the ultimate vehicle assembly, and various types of foreign material can adhere to the body-in-white as a result of these operations prior to the surface treatment or coating applications.
Various automated mechanical and vacuum surface cleaning processes have been proposed and attempted. However, the various attempts have been met with varying degrees of limited success, either in the effectiveness in the removal of foreign material and/or in the risk of damaging or scarring surfaces of the body-in-white or substrate during surface cleaning operations. Accordingly, there remains a need for an improved way of preventing dust and dirt that may have accumulated on the floor of a vehicle during build processes from becoming airborne in primer, top coat paint, and other surface treatment booths and becoming a defect in the coating finish.